MP

Kerry Sacilotto (LAB) since the 2005 election.

Profile

Port Darwin includes the Darwin central business district, along with Larrakeyah and The Gardens. The electorate includes the Cullen Bay marina development, Larrakeyah army barracks, Darwin Botanic Gardens and Darwin Casino.

Redistribution

The old Part Darwin was well over quota and had to lose voters in the redistribution. The suburb of Stuart Park with just over a thousand voters has been re-united with the rest of the suburb in the electorate of Fannie Bay. To balance the numbers, The Gardens with just over 400 voters has been transferred from Fannie Bay to Port Darwin. Port Darwin was Labor's narrowest victory in 2005 with a margin of just 1.1%. On the new boundaries, this appears to have increased to an estimated 1.9%.

History/Trivia

An original seat from 1974, Port Darwin was a CLP stronghold until Labor's narrow victory in 2005. It was held from 1990 until 2000 by former Chief Minister Shane Stone. A solicitor originally from Victoria, he moved to the Territory in 1985 and quickly became active in the CLP. He failed at his first attempt to enter Parliament in 1987, losing the Alice Springs seat of Sadadeen to Independent Dennis Collins. After moving to Darwin, Stone won Port Darwin in 1990 and went straight into the Ministry. Stone became Chief Minister when Marshall Perron retired following the passage of his euthanasia bill, and served in the position until resigning in February 1999. Stone had become unpopular following the defeat of the referendum on NT statehood. Moving to the backbench in 1999, Stone created disquiet among his parliamentary colleagues when he took on the job as Liberal Party Federal President. Stone retired in early-2000, a timing that allowed the government to campaign on mandatory sentencing in the by-election campaign at a time when there was pressure in Canberra to overturn the policy. Port Darwin was then held by the CLP's Sue Carter until defeated at the 2005 election.

Main Candidates

35 year-old Kerry Sacilotto moved to Darwin with her parents 15 years ago. She has worked in real estate for nine years, mainly in property management, before her election to parliament at the 2005 election. Her Country liberal opponent is John Elferink, who was born in the Netherlands, moving to Darwin with his parents as a young child. He joined the NT Police as a 17 year-old cadet, and was working as an Alice Springs based policeman at the time of his surprise victory in the outback seat of Macdonnell at the 1997 election. Against the odds he was re-elected in 2001 at an election where the CLP found itself tossed from office, but could not hold out against the swing to Labor in 2005. Elferink has spent some of his time since 2005 working as Director of the Country Liberal Party. The Greens candidate is former AusAid employee Gary Abbott.

Assessment

One of the first seats the CLP will be hoping to recover, but Labor's Kerry Sacilotto does have the advantage of incumbency. Port Darwin would be CLP held based on 2007 Federal election results.